Obasanjo: Only Unpatriotic Nigerians will Vote Bad Character
James Sowole in Abeokuta
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday declared that only an “unpatriotic and bad Nigerian” would vote for a candidate with bad character in the forthcoming general election.
Obasanjo stated this in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while featuring on an interactive session of the Experiential Leadership in Africa (TEL-Africa).
The TEL-AFRICA global interactive session has its theme as ‘Executive Decisions, Indecisions, and Leadership Development in Africa’.
The former president had in his New Year message to Nigerians, entitled: ‘My appeal to all Nigerians, particularly young Nigerians’, declared his support for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
A development, which generated reactions from both the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
While reacting to a statement that he endorsed Obi, Obasanjo insisted that he did not used the word ‘endorsed’, but he only gave his opinion on the candidates.
Obasanjo said: “Whether the letter is open or not open, what I believe is that I will be punished by God if I know what is right and I did not put it where it should be.
“The word I used is that one particular candidate has an edge, and taking everything together, I take character, I take track record, vision and what you see in this man as a child of God.
“I said they all claimed to be my mentees and of course, I won’t deny that, but if you are my mentee, they must also admit that I know them a little bit, and if I then know them a little bit, I must be right to say…
“I don’t know why some people are agitating. I have done this in the past for President Buhari. I said President Buhari does not really understand economy and that is true and you have seen it. I wasn’t running him down, that is what he is and he himself will admit that.
“I said his (Buhari) understanding of foreign affairs is also very little because when he was military Head of State, he said his frontline does not go beyond the borders of Nigeria, that is a pity.
“But what then do you have, I wrote a letter almost six and a half pages and then only one sentence…
“Why should you as a Nigerian vote for somebody that the character, the reputation, and the life of which you do not want your own children to be?
“It is either you are wicked, you are unpatriotic or you are really, really a bad citizen of this country and then if this is who you are, what do you want God to do with you? So that is the way I see it.
“For the last three days, I have about 35 youths who I have been talking to and they all told me that education, security and corruption are what they are concerned about, the question is who then can do it?”
Responding to a question on whether multi party system has been the bane of development in Nigeria, Obasanjo blamed leadership and not the multi-party system for under development in the country.
